Posted by Todd Miller on 6/21/98 on a CW
discussion forum when I was planning a march to Gettysburg in
1998:

With some of you thinking of doing a march to
Gettysburg in a couple of weeks, I thought you might enjoy the
following quote. It is from John Q. A. Campbell of the
5th Iowa. It was written on Dec. 24, 1862 outside of Memphis.

On the march. Who, that never marched,
knows the meaning of that phrase? What an interesting thing a
regiment, a company is, when 'on the march.' Watch a Company,
see its characters, hear them talking, laughing, and joking
-- and catch their spirit. There they go, merrily, joggin
along --some laughing and joking at each other, at everybody
and everything they pass -- others spouting politics, talking
of the elections, of the probablilities of war and the
posssibilities of peace -- others singing -- others looking
about, eyes wide open, 'viewing the landscape o'er.' Here you
have a man laughing, 'fit to split his sides,' at the humor
of his file leader. At his side, some mischief is relating
his adventures while pursuing butternut hogs and digging for
rebel potatoes. There you see a man, plodding along, with his
head down, brooding over the reverses of our army, and
muttering 'good for my three years, ' while by his side his
more hopeful comrade is singing 'Hail Columbia' or 'There's a
good time coming.' Just behind him a pensive lad is humming
the air of 'Home Sweet Home, ' while his 'right hand man' is
munching a hardcracker and greasing his throat with a piece
of rusty bacon. there you see a man whose ideal is a good
Iowa farm, laughing at the farms and farming of the southern
nabobs, occasionally joining an ex-Supervisor in the
imprecations on southern roads and southern mud-holes. So
they go. 'A company on the march.' Look on them and you see,
in reflection, the human race on the journey of life.